Vintage films take viewers back to simpler times

We might remember the smell of Christmas cookies, a grandparent’s loving embrace or the notion that times were simpler and better.

The same holds true at movie theaters, where, long ago, the world and its issues were often depicted in black-and-white.

Three offerings this week can take viewers back in time.

• “The Thin Man” (1934): The year 1934 doesn’t qualify as the good old days.

The United States was in the grip of the Great Depression, and the unemployment rate was almost 22 percent. Throughout the 1930s, a record-setting drought prompted the Dust Bowl storms that plagued the Plains states.

Americans needed a good laugh. They found one in the antics of married detectives Nick and Nora Charles.

Adapted from the book by Dashiell Hammett, the couple’s bantering and boozing entertained moviegoers:

Audiences responded. The movie, which was filmed for $231,000 and made $729,000 in profit, was nominated for four Academy Awards and would spawn five sequels.

The film will be shown using a 35-mm print.

What the reviewer said: “It is another of those murder mysteries wherein the astute criminologist has many opportunities to chuckle over the work of the police, and, as usual, it is virtually impossible for the onlooker to pick out the murderer.” — Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times, June 30, 1934

American Film Institute rating: No. 32 on the top 100 comedies list

Location: Gateway Film Center, 1550 N. High St.

Showtimes: noon Thursday, 7 p.m. Friday and 4:30 p.m. Saturday

Admission: $12

Contact: 614-247-4433, www.gatewayfilmcenter.com

• “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946):By the middle of the 20th century, life was more wonderful for Americans.

World War II had been won, and the economy had recovered.

The time was perfect for a sweet movie about the joys of the holiday season.

Directed by Frank Capra (“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”), “It’s a Wonderful Life,” with popular stars James Stewart and Donna Reed as George and Mary Bailey, seemed to fill the bill. Despite its cheerful ending, though, the somewhat-dark story of a suicidal businessman whose guardian angel shows him his effect on the world didn’t do well with war-weary customers at the box office, Jeanine Basinger, author of "The 'It’s a Wonderful Life' Book," told Vanity Fair in a 2016 interview.

The best thing that happened to it, film critic Roger Ebert wrote, was that the copyright lapsed and the movie entered the public domain, allowing TV stations to show it as often as they wanted, without charge. This let Viewers then rediscovered the movie, creating a Christmas classic.

This film, too, will be shown using a 35-mm print.

What the reviewer said: “The weakness of this picture, from this reviewer's point of view, is the sentimentality of it — its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are charming, ... but somehow they all resemble theatrical attitudes rather than average realities.” — Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, Dec. 23, 1946

American Film Institute ratings: No. 1 on its list of inspirational movies

Location: Gateway Film Center

Showtimes: 2 p.m. Friday, Sunday and Tuesday through Dec. 21; 7 p.m. Saturday and Monday; and other dates and times through Dec. 25

Admission: $12

• “3 Godfathers” (1948): The year before this film's release, TCM.com reports, director John Ford needed a movie to save his failing studio.

He turned to his bankable star, John Wayne, to appear in a Western to bail him out.

The move worked: According to IMDb.com, the movie grossed $2.8 million.

Besides Wayne, “3 Godfathers” starred Harry Carey Jr. and Pedro Armendariz as bank robbers on the run in the Mojave Desert. There, they find a dying woman about to give birth who persuades the outlaws to promise to deliver her baby to safety.

One by one, the outlaws fall until Wayne’s weakened character is alone in the desert with the baby.

Despite the movie's themes of love and devotion, Ford was a notorious taskmaster. According to TCM.com, the director went out of his way to make Armendariz, who was a major star in Mexico, feel less than glamorous and cruelly taunted Carey, who was playing a part that his father had filled in two previous versions of the film.

What the reviewer said: “There are humor and honest tear-jerking in this visually beautiful film. And it has one other rare distinction: It describes a baby's birth without anyone ever demanding ‘Hot water, plenty of it!’” — Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, March 4, 1949

American Film Institute ratings: not listed

Location: Grandview Heights Public Library, 1685 W. 1st Ave.

Showtime: 6:30 p.m. Monday

Admission: free

Contact: 614-486-2954, www.ghpl.org

tmikesel@dispatch.com

@Terrymikesell

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